Vectors and Framing

This week examined framing and vectors, both in how they are presented to us and how we alter them. Mackenzie’s reading offered a particularly interesting perspective on this, I thought. Here, he examined vectors as the mediums through which information is disseminated geographically or temporally, and the way in which these can enhance power.

What I had not before considered was how these vectors operate in terms of our changing social paradigm. The idea that information mediums are creating a radically commoditized reality where the participants are objectified but also perpetuate the commodification is becoming increasingly apparent - if not evident enough in the tremendous technological surge then simply in the wealth of the vectorial class (think Steve jobs and Rupert Murdoch). 

As we surpass the physical geography of our social scape, we become engrossed instead in a virtual reality, where the flow of information is so continuous and instantaneous that it has surpassed our ability to consume and control it. The 'app' as a vector has been particularly effective in commodifying our ‘second nature’ - we have apps that connect us with friends, with employers, with religion and with our desires. The interface channels the information and in its data and coding, computes and objectifies our totality; both physically and mentally. 

The marketability of this process is where framing comes into play. Our reality is now framed through these information vectors to such an extent that we are now the reinforcing factor behind our total objectification. Our technology frames the way we engage with each other, which in turn supplies data and marketing information to companies which is then framed back to us. It is a cyclical process, framed again as a linear progression. Ultimately, the interplay between these two concepts are becoming increasingly powerful in the technological era. As we move toward greater technological capacity, their role will become more prominent but also more embedded – until, I imagine, it will be hard to discern our marketability from our reality.